"Righteousness" refers to "good works"that is, actions that God esteems to be "good."

A person, man or woman, boy or girl, who behaves according to what God judges to be good works is a righteous person. God approves of his or her deeds.

The verse above says that God has created us in Christ Jesus to do good works, and that these good works were prepared in advance for us to do.

This means that God has settled upon specific elements of behavior. They all come from God's Character but do not include all of God's Character, His image. For instance, God executes vengeance, but vengeance is not a work, not an element of behavior, that God is creating us in Christ to perform.

The Lampstand of the Tabernacle of the Congregation portrays the anointed One, Christ, who bears witness of the Character of God. The anointing includes seven Spirits, all of whom are part of the Holy Spirit of God.

John, To the seven churches in the province of Asia: Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, (Revelation 1:4)

The seven Spirits who are before the Throne of God rest upon Jesus Christ and upon the members of His Body. These Spirits produce seven kinds of behavior, seven kinds of "good works" that God's workmanship has created us to do.

When we behave according to these seven Spirits we are in the image of God and bear witness of God's Character.

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord and he will delight in the fear of the Lord. (Isaiah 11:1-3)

The Spirit of Wisdom.

The Spirit of Understanding.

The Spirit of Counsel.

The Spirit of Power.

The Spirit of Knowledge.

The Spirit of the Fear of the Lord.

The Spirit of Delight in the Fear of the Lord.

These seven are all taken from the Character of God. God saves us so we may behave according to these seven Spirits, and in this manner bear a true witness of God.

Each one of these must characterize us if we are to be in God's image and give a true testimony of God.

Wisdom enables us to act in such a manner that the goals we have in mind are realized.

Understanding gives us a realization of all of the facts that must be considered if we are to make a godly decision.

Counsel is the ability to advise people and help them with their problems.

Power moves people, things, and circumstances in the direction we wish them to go.

Knowledge is a true awareness and perception of what is real.

The Fear of the Lord is a due appreciation of the unlimited power and authority of God.

Delight in the Fear of the Lord makes doing God's will palatable and workable. "I delight to do Your will, O God." God loves the individual who delights in working righteousness. The religious crank, with his angry looks, attempts to do God's will but hates doing it himself and hates everyone else because they don't do God's will, as he or she understands it.

When we are filled with wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and the fear of God we are not going to lie, steal, behave immorally, murder, or engage in any other unrighteous practice.

When these seven anointings are on us we will practice the deeds of righteousness and holiness listed in the commands of the Lord Jesus and His Apostles. We will be able to rise above hatred, lying, stealing, and moral impurity. We will love God with all our heart and our neighbor as ourselves.

Such behavior will be true of every member of the Royal Priesthood, and their testimony will influence the people who are saved to the new world of righteousness.

God has chosen these seven aspects of His Divine Nature to be revealed in those people whom He has saved by grace. The saved individuals were chosen from the beginning of the world, and their behavior also has been selected from the beginning of the world.

When God issued the awful fiat, "Let us make man in Our image, in Our likeness," God began a program that will continue past the thousand-year Kingdom Age; past the final resurrection, past the new sky and earth, and into the endless ages of ages.

I have no doubt that the stars in the new sky, which will not shine by nuclear fission but by the same light that lighted the world during the first three days of creation, will be the home of the ever increasing population of human beings.

The Kingdom of Christ will continue to expand throughout eternity. It will be governed by a Royal Priesthood. Each member of the Priesthood will be anointed with the seven Spirits of God, since the anointing flows from the Head so that the whole Body of Christ is covered.

As the Priesthood governs, being guided by the seven Spirits of God, the worlds of people who will continue to enlarge will not be subject to the disgusting, corrupt, obscene, hateful, rebellious, defiant, murderous scenes that have characterized the earth throughout its history.

All of these abominable relationships, situations, and events have been produced by man attempting to live his life without God. The result is, man has been subject to demonic activity. What we see taking place on the earth in our day is the wild, behavior of demons, using human beings to satisfy their lusts.

The politicians of today are groping for solutions while attempting to maintain their own roles and offices. There shall be no peace on the earth until Christ, Head and Body, appears from Heaven and installs by force the Kingdom of God.

Even after a thousand years of righteous government by people inspired by the seven Spirits of God, Satan will manage to deceive the nations of the earth, urging them to rebel against God and His Priesthood.

Over the horizon they come, a Christ-rejecting horde. They will surround Jerusalem. But Divine fire will consume them in an instant.. Then God shall remove the present earth and sky because they are contaminated. God will insure that He never again will have to deal with the rebellion of His children.

Obviously we human beings cannot work up in ourselves the righteous image of God.

Each of us must pray for the Spirit of Wisdom. For example, we are faced at this time with a presidential election. We can see the lies and other abominations in the government. Numerous fine Christian people are politically active, attempting to bring righteousness into our government.

But they may not have heard from God whether or not this is what God desires. It may be that God would have matters get worse until America, because of its sinful behavior is made a third-class nation. In any case, we should pray until we know from God that we are behaving wisely in this matter of the corruption in our government.

Each of us must pray for the Spirit of Understanding. We church people are apt to rush to judgment before we understand all the fact of the case. We may judge young people who enter the assembling dressed in outlandish clothes and wearing nose rings. We may rise up in ignorant protest, not understanding their background. Our God is very understanding, and we are to be in His image.

I have had a problem with anger against certain leaders of our government because of their decisions and actions. The Lord Jesus spoke to me and reminded me that He has not revealed Himself to them as He has to me. Then I understood that such people are being used by the almighty Christ for his own purposes, and I have no business becoming angry with them.

A dog barks because he is a dog. A sinner sins because God has not as yet brought him or her to Christ. So being angry with an individual when God has not opened his or her eyes to the truth is unbecoming to a believer to whom God has given the Spirit of Understanding.

Each of us must pray for the Spirit of Counsel. There are chaotic days ahead for us in America when God judges us for the abortion on demand, and gender confusion. People are going to need counseling, because they will be frightened at what they see coming to pass.

In the day of chaos they will need to be assured that Jesus Christ is in control, and if we will obey Him we will survive.

Each of us must pray for the Spirit of Power. God is permitting false gods to exercise themselves in the nations of the earth. These false gods were active from the earliest days of recorded history. They cannot be overcome by politics or education. Our fleshly attempts to subdue them are laughable compared with the power of evil that is being unleashed at this time.

God has given Christ all power in Heaven and upon the earth. If we will walk in strict obedience to Jesus, walking in the ways of righteousness and holiness, when power is needed it will be present. The battle against evil is designed by the Father and executed by the Lord Jesus Christ. There never is a question of power, it is a question of righteousness and obedience on the part of the members of the Body of Christ.

I am not referring to imputed righteousness but to the actual righteousness of behavior that results when we are anointed with the seven Spirits of God.

Each of us must pray for the Spirit of Knowledge. There is a gift of knowledge by which the believer may be made aware of facts not in evidence.

Then there is the knowledge of the Scriptures. There is a great deal of error in contemporary Christian preaching, and I have been addressing these errors in my writings over a period of forty years. The greatest error is that of attempting to use "grace" as a means of disobeying the commands of Christ and His Apostles and still remain righteous in God's sight.

God's people in America are perishing for lack of knowledge. May God raise up ministers who preach and teach the New Testament, rather than the assortment of traditions that have accumulated over the years.

Each one of us must pray for the Spirit of the Fear of the Lord. The image of God in America is that of an indulgent grandfather who is pleading for people to at least recognize He exists. He is not asking them to change their behavior, only to "accept Jesus." Once they do that, God will applaud thunderously and lavish on them every blessing of this present life and of the world to come.

This is not a true picture of God. God is not a human. He is a Spirit. Atonement for the sins of the world had to be made by the sacrifice of His beloved Son.

The Spirit of God in our day has begun to remove the weeds from the wheat. Those who confess and turn away from their sins will shine like the sun. Those who refuse to be delivered from sin will be "thrown into the fiery furnace." Does that sound to you like a kindly, indulgent grandfather?

The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 13:41,42)

Since God has the power to do whatever He wishes with any human being, the individual who does not fear God is a fool.

Each of us must pray for the Spirit of Delight in the Fear of the Lord. Christ is a great King with all power and authority. It grieves Him when people serve Him grudgingly. He want us to rejoice and be pleased with all He does in our life.

I personally have known the chastening of the Lord. I know what it is like to go through dark places with Christ. Such experiences are common to all disciples of Jesus.

But the Bible promises us that if we will delight ourselves in the Lord He shall give us the desires of our heart.

So we can choose to disbelieve Christ and to complain about our circumstances. If we do, sooner or later Christ will give us what we are attempting to clutch, but He will send leanness into our soul.

Or we can praise the Lord for what happens to us. He may leave us in unpleasant surroundings for a while to burn the self-love and self-seeking out of us.

But of one thing we can be certain: God always is fully aware of every detail of our life. He has all power and He is directing our life so we finally will possess everlasting righteousness, love, joy, and peace.

We may not understand at times what is taking place in our life. But we must choose to believe the goodness and faithfulness of Christ, always telling Him that we know He is leading us in the best possible manner.

Praise the Lord whether or not you feel like it. He paid a great price for you, He will never leave you nor forsake you, and He always has your good in mind.

Show a little appreciation for this fact and let Jesus know you have absolute confidence in Him.

I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips. (Psalms 34:1)